The Iraqi authorities have announced the completion of capturing Mosul. This message was delivered from the liberated city by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who arrived as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to personally congratulate servicemen and militias.

And although scattered pockets of armed resistance by Islamic State remain, a crushing blow has been dealt to ISIS in Iraq. What lies ahead is the elimination of the terrorists' presence on the entire territory of the country.

The capture of Mosul was accomplished thanks to the courage and perseverance of the Iraqi soldiers, the people's militia, and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The offensive showed the ability of the government and people of Iraq – a friendly nation to Russia – to jointly overcome the challenges of terrorism.

Yet, it should be noted that a high price was paid in the offensive to recapture Mosul. According to various reports, the losses of the Iraqi forces stand at some 30,000. Horrific suffering has been endured by civilians. During the fighting to liberate the city, some 7,000 its residents were killed, as a result of both ISIS actions and the air strikes by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. About 900,000 Mosul residents have become refugees.

Moscow supports the actions by the Iraqi authorities aimed at restoring the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We are certain that promoting intra-Iraqi national reconciliation, with due account of the interests of all ethnic and religious groups, will consolidate the progress in fighting terrorism.

Following the National Awards ceremony, a reception was held on the Kremlin’s Ivanovskaya Square for the national holiday, Russia Day.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Dear friends, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,I would like to congratulate you on Russia Day. This holiday marks the centuries-old, uninterrupted path of our Fatherland; our achievements and victories; the pivotal, breakthrough stages and the unending progress to new heights of development. The main credit for the renewal of the country, the strengthening of the state, always goes to its citizens, their work, unity and devotion to the Fatherland. We know this, and not just from history.The sweeping transformations of the 90s changed the lives of modern generations. We ourselves lived through this difficult, dramatic period. The radical changes affected all branches and levels of government, economic and social relations. Changes of this scale and depth always have varied consequences. Russia, our people have not only lived through a rapid leap forward to a new life – and this is something without which development would be impossible – but also through extremely dangerous, alarming times when statehood was weakened, and the foundations of society were eroding and vulnerable.However, all of these difficulties were overcome. Year by year, as democratic institutions developed and society opened up, there was a growing understanding of the importance of our roots and traditions, a growing realisation that progress can be made only in a strong, independent country and that the state’s power is derived from political stability, common goals and the consolidation of society.Together, we were able to preserve the unique diversity of the Russian people, prevent the obliteration and devaluation of the principles of citizenship and patriotism, secure the sovereignty of our country, and clearly define the national interests of Russia. We learnt how to stand up for them, relying, among other things, on historical experience. And this coherent understanding of Russia is our most important possession.The outstanding achievements of the National Award winners are a shining example of devotion and respect for the Fatherland. Once again, from the bottom of my heart I would like to congratulate you on the high praise that your work in the arts and sciences has garnered.Dear friends,In order to achieve success in the economy, in social development, we must understand, hear and respect each other, cherish what has already been done for the Fatherland to improve the quality of the people’s lives, their security. We all need to focus on a positive, creative agenda. Each of us is able to make our own contribution to strengthening Russia. This is our duty to the Fatherland, our responsibility for its present and future. I would like to propose a toast to a free, prosperous Russia, to the well-being of its citizens! Happy Russia Day!

Vladimir Putin began his work at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum by meeting with the heads of international news agencies.

Taking part in the meeting were President of EFE (Spain) Jose Antonio Vera, Editor-in-Chief of PTI (India) Vijay Joshi, Vice President of Kyodo News (Japan) Juno Kondo, General Director of DPA (Germany) Peter Kropsch, Editor-in-Chief of Anadolu (Turkey) Metin Mutanoglu, First Vice President of Xinhua (China) Zhang Sutan, Vice President of Associated Press (USA) Ian Phillips, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg (USA) John Fraher, President and Director General of ANSA (Italy) Giuseppe Cerbone, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of TT Group (Sweden) and President of the European Alliance of News Agencies Jonas Eriksson. Russia was represented at the meeting by Director General of TASS Sergei Mikhailov. * * *President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, colleagues, It is a great pleasure to see you again in St Petersburg on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. We meet regularly on the forum’s sidelines, but for some reason, these meetings always took place in the evening and went on very late into the night. This time, we have a chance to discuss things with a fresh head, as it were.

I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings to all those present on Africa Day.

President Vladimir Putin sent his traditional message of greetings to the heads of African states and governments in which he praised the successes of African countries in diverse spheres, as well as Africa’s growing role in forming a fair and democratic multipolar international order. We confirm our readiness to further expand our wide-ranging cooperation.

Russia’s consistently friendly, partner relations with African states, based on the principles of equality and mutual respect, have stood the test of time and continue developing. Yesterday and today’s talks with the delegations of Nigerian and Zambian friends that are present here and are headed by Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama and Zambian Foreign Minister Harry Kalaba reaffirmed their shared determination to deepen and diversify partnership and search for new, promising areas of cooperation.

We are developing high-level and top-level political dialogue, promoting our inter-parliamentary ties and expanding cooperation between foreign ministries. This year alone Moscow played host to the foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Zambia, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Eritrea. Following the talks the sides confirmed that their positions align on most international issues and ways of addressing security challenges and threats.

Russia is interested in developing cooperation with the African Union and other African associations. We value our regular political consultations with their leaders.

We are in favour of deepening the BRICS-Africa dialogue that was launched in Durban in 2013.

Socioeconomic progress is inseparable from our ability to ensure peace and security. We support the efforts of Africans to prevent and settle conflicts, including building up their own peacekeeping capacity. We are ready to broaden our cooperation in fighting international terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and piracy.

We support the principle that African problems require African solutions. We are convinced that African countries know better than anyone else how to overcome difficulties on the path to peace, stability and sustainable development. The world community is called upon to help Africans and support these aspirations.

There are good opportunities for promoting trade and economic ties. We support the interest in expanding Russian business activity in Africa and the implementation of regional projects on mineral resources, energy infrastructure and agriculture.

We will continue carrying out debt-for-development programmes and using most favoured nation status in trade.

We will continue rendering humanitarian aid to African states, including as part of the UN and the G20, to African countries that have fallen victim to conflicts, natural and man-made disasters and pandemics.

The number of Africans studying in Russian universities is growing every year. There are about 15,000 students in Russia now.

The start of dialogue between the African Union Commission and the Commission of the Eurasian Economic Union is a new undertaking. We have an extensive and ambitious agenda.

Today, on Africa Day, I would like to wish you new achievements on this road. Congratulations to you once again. I wish you all the best.

On May 23, the UNSC held its successive discussion on the state of affairs around the so-called Syrian "chemical dossier". The Western "troika" of permanent members of the UN Security Council sought to give an anti-Assad and anti‑Russian pronounced spin to this event. It was reconfirmed that these "exposers" of Damascus were not interested in establishing the truth in a crucial issue of who actually stood behind the alleged use of sarin on April 4, 2017, in the Syrian province of Idlib. Representatives of the United States, Great Britain and France have desperately resisted any attempt to figure out to what extent their verdict delivered "in absentia" about the allegedly undeniable responsibility of the Bashar Al-Assad Government for this chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun was justified.

An unsightly scene has been developed. It seems that almost two months after the chemical incident nobody has been in a hurry to visit Khan Sheikhoun in order to examine all the circumstances of such a high-impact case. Moreover, the Westerners have ruled out even the very option of visiting the Shayirat airbase where, according to their own allegations, the sarin used in Khan Sheikhoun was stored.

Unfortunately, no activity has been undertaken in this regard by the OPCW Fact‑Finding Mission (FFM) that proceeds with postponing its visit to Khan Sheikhoun blaming unfavorable security conditions. As for the leadership of the OPCW – UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), it is yet to develop a plan of investigatory actions indicating sites to visit, individuals to question and documents to claim.

Russia's position on this ongoing situation is well known and crystal clear: the investigation of this incident should be carried out as scrupulously as possible, in strict compliance with the JIM and FFM mandates approved by the UNSC and OPCW and include all investigatory actions, methods and proceedings envisaged in relevant UNSC resolutions and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Both Khan Sheikhoun and Shayirat airbase must be visited, the first as the site of this barbaric deed and the second as facility claimed to be allegedly in a direct relation with it. The established vicious practice within the JIM and FFM of conducting investigations in a remote mode based on the evidence provided by questionable witnesses or sometimes even "false victims" is absolutely unacceptable. The resources of NGOs that compromised themselves long ago and have established links with militants and terrorist entities are widely used. This is not just an imitation of work – we are dealing with a deliberate, intentional falsification in pursuance of clearly established political objectives.

We once again call upon our Western partners, flaunting their quasi-evidence, to answer a number of the specific questions. In particular, whether the fundamental CWC procedure of chain of custody was observed during the collection of biomedical and other samples, or not? Isn’t it time to stop building far-reaching accusatory conclusions on crudely orchestrated, staged video-materials and other unreliable information, with which the irreconcilable Syrian opposition and its foreign patrons abundantly provide the JIM and FFM?

Returning to the issue of a visit to the Shayirat airbase, we recall that, in the early April 2017, Damascus has already provided official guarantees of secure access to it for the FFM specialists. Moreover, the Syrian Government has demanded that such a visit be organized without delay, thus confirming its willingness to fulfill its commitments arising from p. 12 of the FFM Mandate (Terms of Reference) and provisions of p. 15 of Part XI of the Verification Annex to the CWC. It is explicitly stated there that "the inspection team (of the OPCW) shall have the right of access to any and all areas which could be affected by the alleged use of chemical weapons". Therefore, all prerequisites for organizing such a visit in terms of ensuring security and fulfilling the obligations under the Convention have already been created. So, this is in stark contrast with the JIM's inactivity and an indifferent stand of the OPCW's leadership, which believes that visit to the airbase is beyond the FFM competence.

We insist that along with the FFM the JIM should get involved in the investigation of the situation at the Shayirat airbase. We recall that operative paragraph 6 of UNSC resolution 2319 directs the Joint Investigative Mechanism to offer its services to the OPCW. UNSC resolution 2235, which in fact established the Mechanism, contains pp. 3 and 4 stipulating the requirement to identify those responsible for acquiring and stockpiling chemical weapons. Besides, p. 7 of this resolution clearly states the need for full access to all locations relevant to the investigation. So, why has this provisions been flagrantly disregarded by our opponents?

Not only we but also a number of other countries deem a visit to the Shayirat airbase necessary "based on the facts and circumstances known at the time" (p. 7 of UNSC resolution 2235).

We urge the JIM leadership and the OPCW Technical Secretariat to undertake immediate measures to rectify the current situation, send their specialists to Khan Sheikhoun and the Shayirat airbase without delay, ensure comprehensive and impartial investigation of all circumstances of this case and take other measures under their mandates to "…identify to the greatest extent feasible individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organisers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical, in the Syrian Arab Republic…" (p. 5 of UNSC resolution 2235).

Further avoidance of a comprehensive investigation will bring into question the capacity of the JIM and FFM and the necessity of their further existence accordingly.